Customer service starts with good staffing

If you want to build a customer-centric culture, hire people that have a passion to serve and a personality that pleases.  This is the only way to build a culture of service.

This is something Libby Sartain (former Chief People Officer, Yahoo!) taught me, from her days running HR at Southwest Airlines.  Hire people based on their social fit, not just their qualifications. Too often, leaders see customer service as a CRM, management or training issue.  But if you have the wrong type of people on the bus, I wonder, what difference will all those investments really make? 

Here's a few ways to integrate customer-centricity into your hiring practice.  PS - For small companies, this is exponentially more important as one bad egg can stink up the place.  

1.  Don't focus on the resume during the first interview.  If you can, force the hiring manager to have a paperless interview to screen for personality and fit.  

2. Never hire an unhappy, insensitive or anti-social person.  The labor pool has too many people for you to choose from.  Even if he/she is not customer facing, culture is impacted by each personality introduced into the group. 

3. Make 'customer attitude' a part of your marketing for candidates - eg: "Customer service enthusiasts preferred.' 

4. Lesson from Zappos via Delivering Happiness:  During the onboarding process, preach customer-service as THE core value of the company.  Make the case that people deserve good service, and it's a noble profession to deliver it to them.  At the end of the process, offer new-hires a chunk of change to quit the company.  That way, you'll ensure that your people are willing to 'pay for the the right to deliver happiness with customer service.'

 

Comments

[Josh]

Great Post! I've found using good luck in the past using supremestaff.com. Hope that helps! Love to see more posts like this.

[Anthony Pettersson]

I agree in your title,good staffing and being professional for me are one of the key for a good customer services,most of the time staff are also one of the reason why there is some business failed because of mistakes,in Finland most of the customer services are trained very well to avoid misunderstanding and mistakes.

[Sonia Roody]

The second tip is truly important in sales and call center. For sure, any clients want a jolly and reliable agents. Positive vibes are very important in any field that you're working on.

[call center]

Great staff in your company can really improve your service and performance for your clients. That is the reason why HR personnel hire employees that will be an asset in the company. But if these companies cannot hire new employees for some reasons, they can conduct seminars and trainings that will increase knowledge towards good customer service. Actually, that's what other companies do for their employees for them to increase the potential in providing better services for their clients.

[Gabriele Maidecchi]

You are totally right. And not just for customer service hires. I believe sometimes managers should consider the "human" behind a curriculum a bit more than the curriculum itself. That's what I like to do, and it paid off so far. Not many people really bother getting to know a candidate a bit better before taking any decision.

[Cale D. Hawley]

"...offer new-hires a chunk of change to quit the company."

Am I reading this correctly...very contrarian. I love it.

[Richard]

Hi Tim,
Just finished listening to 'Love is the Killer App'. I loved it. On this post we stayed at a hotel this summer where even the student staff were outstanding. I wondered how they trained them so fast. They have a rule policy in interviews. Regardless of qualifications, experience etc. the canditate has to smile before they are smiled at. It worked.

[David Horne]

Sound advice Tim. I think the customer service/marketing piece starts with the HR Mix. It is as much cultural as anything. Too often, companies seek to fill a job description (which is usually not true to the position) instead of finding a fit for what characteristics they need to build a team.